Unfounded
by Dana Hale
Summary: Alternate ending to the Jamie/Eddie storyline in 6x11 Back in the Day. When Jamie stormed off to answer the 10-13 leaving Eddie behind alone in the car, he didn't realize that there would be serious consequences to his actions which force him to realize the depth of his feelings for Eddie. Complete.


Unfounded. The 10-13 call turned out to be nothing. Which just made Jamie's temper flare up even more. Never before had he been so mad at Eddie, and it surprised him. He was surprised that she chose to chase a gold shield rather than back up her fellow comrades in blue. It just wasn't like her.

He stood there in the dancing shadows of the red and blue flashing lights of the response vehicles, his hands tightly balled into fists. He took in a long deep breath and slowly let it out through his nostrils to try to calm down. If he was really honest with himself, he wasn't just angry about her split-second decision to grab the car keys out of the ignition, but he was shrouded in jealously and sadness over the idea of being left behind and losing her as a partner once she received her promotion. And he knew it was only a matter of time that she would get promoted, because she really did have a knack for detective work.

He sighed. But a 10-13…how can you just ignore a 10-13? Maybe it wasn't about putting the shield first. She was just following orders from her superior officer to stay put. In her eyes, she was going by the book- a trait that he was known for and had always tried to instill in her when she was a rookie. His anger started to dissipate once he realized that neither one of their judgment calls tonight could be considered right or wrong. He slowly put one foot in front of the other, walking the few blocks back to the car, ready to professionally address the thick tension that would be left hanging in the air between them.

He was a block away when the sirens of the response vehicles from the prior scene revved back up again, and one by one the RMP's screeched their tires around the corner and whizzed past him. He was able to flag the last one in line down by flashing his badge.

"Hey, what's going on?" Jamie asked as the officer in the passenger seat rolled down the window.

"Another 10-13 close by. This one's for real. Detective Rivera called it in. Corner of 55th and 10th."

Jamie's heart came to a stop in his chest. Eddie was sitting on the corner of 55th and 10th.

* * *

The car he was in barely came to a stop before Jamie spilled out of it, assessing the nightmare scene before him. He ran full speed past the gathering spectators and was met by a wall of cops who were blocking the path to his empty Mustang which was surrounded by yellow police tape. The passenger window was shattered, and there was glass everywhere. A group of EMT's with their backs to the crowd were crouched on the ground next to the car doing their work and blocking the rest of his view.

"Hey, you can't go through there," someone held him back.

With wild eyes and sudden brute strength from the rush of pure adrenaline, he pushed the guy over who held him, "The hell I can! That's my car! I'm Officer Reagan! I need to see my partner! EDDIE?" Jamie was a loose cannon as he pushed away anyone who got in his way.

"Hey! Knock it off! Calm down!" another officer grabbed a fistful of Jamie's shirt and immediately found himself involved in a shoving match. "You can't go over there. You can't be in the way! Let them do their job!"

"I need to see her! EDDIE!" Jamie screamed as he couldn't keep his eyes off the EMT's who were franticly working to get their patient stabilized.

Detective Rivera noticed the commotion and quickly ran over to help. "Officer Reagan," the detective shouted while he calmly placed his hand on Jamie's shoulder and looked him in the eye. It was a look that told Jamie that bad news was about to follow and Jamie froze in place out of sheer terror.

"Tell me. Just tell me," Jamie huffed out as his eyes watered over, more scared than ever. "How bad?"

"Don't know, I didn't get to see her. All I know is she took a hit."

"Oh God," Jamie closed his eyes and felt the sting of his tears. All the air went out of his lungs and he couldn't seem to fill them back up, he was suffocating. He opened his eyes and tried to make sense of it all. "What happened?" he choked out.

"Turns out Roger Jeffers is a gangbanger. His gang found out somehow that we've been sitting on his mother's house. Roger didn't like that too much, so they planned an aggressive attack. Janko wasn't the only one hit. They took down two of my other detectives before we finally got them apprehended. What I want to know is, where the hell were you? Why'd you leave your partner?"

The guilt was more than he could bear. He left his partner. He left Eddie all alone. He should have been here to protect her. He could have prevented this. This was his fault.

Jamie left Detective Rivera's question unanswered as they watched the EMT's lift the stretcher up from the ground and race to meet the bus that had pulled up, finally giving Jamie a good look at what was going on. He was shocked to see that it wasn't Eddie lying in the stretcher; it was Roger, bleeding very badly from his right leg.

"Janko's a damn good shot. Gutsy, too. Returned fire while she was hit. Took him down fast and helped save lives tonight," Rivera spoke proudly.

"What?" Jamie swallowed hard, looking around for Eddie. "Where is she?"

"They rushed her to St. Vincent."

"Hey Kid!" Danny shouted as he jogged up from behind. Jamie immediately recognized the voice of his brother. "Thank God you're okay. Heard the call go out." Danny was so relieved to see Jamie standing there in one piece. But it didn't take him long to realize that his baby brother was not okay as Jamie swiped away the wetness on his face with a shaky hand, looking dazed and lost.

Danny scanned the scene quickly and realized that one very important person was missing who was usually never far from Jamie's side. And then it hit him. "No. Oh no, Jamie. Not Eddie…"

Jamie gulped in some air and tampered down the wave of dizziness. "They rushed her to St. Vincent…I…I don't know how bad, I wasn't…I wasn't with her...God Danny…It's my fault! I wasn't with her when it happened!"

Danny sucked in a deep breath himself, feeling for his brother. "C'mon, Kid. I'll take you to the hospital. We'll call Linda on the way to see if she knows anything."

* * *

"Dammit, she's not answering," Danny hung up and pressed the accelerator of his Charger down to the floor. Jamie remained silent and in shock. Danny stole a glance at him and sighed. Not only could Jamie be losing another partner, but Danny wasn't stupid. He knew Eddie wasn't just a "partner" to Jamie and that the two were closer than partners should be. And Jamie was already blaming himself for Eddie getting hurt. Danny feared Jamie wouldn't be able to cope if she were to die.

"Hey. You still with me?" Danny tried to break through to him.

Jamie could only nod.

"Don't go thinkin' the worst right now. Stay positive, alright?" Danny encouraged, but it fell flat. He remembered how hard it was to do that when Linda got shot.

They pulled up to the hospital quickly and stormed through the emergency doors. Linda saw them coming in and ran out into the hallway to meet them. "Hey, I tried calling you," Danny told her.

"I know, I'm sorry. The two detectives that were brought in are in bad shape and I had to focus on them."

Jamie was jumping out of his skin. "Linda…." he croaked, on the verge of completely losing it.

Linda smiled at Jamie and quickly reached out to touch his arm. "She's fine, Jamie. Bullet grazed her arm. Just a flesh wound, and some minor cuts and scrapes from the glass shattering. She'll be released in a few minutes. She's been asking for you. Room three around the corner.

"She's fine?" he said in disbelief.

Linda squeezed his arm. "Yes. She really is," she answered comfortingly. "Go see for yourself."

Jamie immediately released all the fear and tension that his body had been holding.

"See, told ya, Kid. Positive thinking." Danny slapped Jamie on the back with a smile, jolting him back to life.

Jamie finally was able to let a smile of relief grow on his face. "Thanks, Danny, for being there."

"Hey, you know I always got your back. Now go see your girl."

Jamie rolled his eyes at yet another dig regarding his not-so-hidden feelings for Eddie. "You mean my _partner_ ," Jamie corrected as he started out to make his way to her room.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. Your _partner,"_ Danny grinned wide.

Danny grabbed Linda into a hug and held her tight, turning serious again. "God, that was awful. He wasn't with her when it happened, he was freakin' out so bad, not knowin'. First Joe and then Vinny…but Eddie? You know the way he feels about her. I don't know if the Kid could have handled it if this ended differently. And it just brought it all back for me, too, with you…"

"I know what you mean," Linda said as she pulled out of the hug and pressed a kiss to her husband's forehead. "But I'm okay and Eddie's okay. Okay?"

Danny smiled at his wife and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "Okay."

* * *

Jamie nervously entered the room and stayed by the door as he locked eyes with Eddie who was sitting up high on the edge of the exam table with her arm bandaged and held in a sling. She looked small and tired, and he drank her in as a tremendous wave of relief and protectiveness washed over him.

"Hi," she spoke softly.

"Hi," he said back, surprised that his voice was able to comply around the lump in his throat. He couldn't move.

They continued to stare at each other until the silence in the room became too much for Eddie. She slowly slid off the table and tucked her hair behind her ear, a nervous habit of hers, Jamie knew. With her hair pulled back, he noticed the crude red slices and scrapes on her face from where the broken glass from his car had pierced and cut her.

"Sorry about your car," she joked, although she knew now was not the time to joke. But she had to say something to break the silence.

He imagined Roger's bullet penetrating the window and then hitting Eddie, and her being all alone, jolting in pain and bleeding, shocked and taken by surprise, having to reach for her weapon and fire back to fight for her life as bullets continued to whiz past her head. And he wasn't there to protect her.

Jamie finally found the strength to move, and in four quick steps he engulfed her in his arms, being mindful of her injury. She was warm and soft, and alive. She stiffened at first because of his forwardness and physical closeness, but then relaxed and melted into his arms. It felt wonderful to be held by him.

"I'm so sorry I left you," he whispered hoarsely into her neck. "God, Eddie. I thought I lost you." He squeezed her even tighter.

She rested her head on his shoulder and felt him shiver. "I'm right here, Jamie. I'm fine. I'm okay," she kept repeating and tried to calm him by rubbing circles on his back.

"I never would have forgiven myself. I would have been done. I would have turned in my badge," he mumbled.

Eddie frowned and lifted her head to look him in the eye. "Jamie, don't say that. Don't ever say that."

He touched his forehead to hers, keeping his arms around her. "No, it's true. I was thinking about it in the car on the way here, when I thought you could be dead. With Joe and Vinny, they were different…Joe's death made me want to be a cop, and training you helped me to deal with Vinny's death, but you…I wouldn't have been able to move on from that. Not from you, Eddie. Never from you."

The gravity of his words soaked into her heart and she realized this was the closest way for him to say the words 'I love you' without actually saying them. Her eyes glazed over with tears, overwhelmed by the depth of his confession.

"No, you would have moved on. Because I would have come back to haunt you and kick your ass for giving up," she chuckled through her tears.

Jamie smiled knowing that with her feistiness, she would have found a way to do just that. "Oh you would have, huh? Well let's make sure you never have to do that, okay?"

She nodded and he lifted his hand to her face, brushing away her tears with his thumb. She hugged him tight one more time and then they let go of each other. They stood there not knowing what to do now. He thought of offering her a ride home, but then realized he didn't have his car, and probably wouldn't for a while.

Jamie cleared his throat. "So I heard you were the hero out there tonight. Rivera's probably going to recommend you for a promotion. Maybe I'm still gonna lose you after all, Janko."

Eddie thought for a moment and then spoke. "You know how you asked me if I would miss being out on patrol, and I said the only thing I would miss is hanging out with you?'

"Yeah," Jamie answered, wondering where her train of thought was going.

"Everything that happened tonight…I just think that we are better together, Reagan, not apart. Maybe I'm not ready to give up our partnership quite yet," she admitted.

"Eddie, as much as I value our partnership and love working with you, I don't want to be the one thing that's holding you back. You got the skills. You deserve that promotion. It's a higher pay grade and a good career move. If it comes your way, you need to take it."

"Oh don't get me wrong, I want a promotion. But only when the time is right."

Jamie looked confused. "And when would that be?"

"I don't know. Maybe when you get around to taking the Sergeant's exam. Or when you get promoted to detective. Because you deserve it too, Jamie. And I hope I'm not the one thing holding YOU back."

"Well maybe I'm not ready for that yet, either." he countered. "I like being on patrol, preventing things from happening rather than trying to clean up the mess after the fact."

"Well we're pathetic, aren't we? What, are we going to be in the RMP together for the next twenty years?" she asked jokingly.

"If that's the case, I'm going to need to go on a strict diet," he rubbed his stomach. "All those meal breaks…"

"Shut it, Reagan!"

He smiled and his eyes sparkled as he gazed into her eyes. "So I guess we're stuck with each other then for a little while longer?"

She smiled back playfully. "For a little while longer."


End file.
